Customer Reviews

Multiple Choice

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book "Multiple Choice" researches a disorder that I'm sure many teens and adults alike suffer from. Not only is the reader able to understand Monica's emotions, but they are also able to get into the mind of someone who suffers from this. The author has successfully added humor to this book as well as interesting anagrams and a few oriddle type things. Personally, I enjoyed reading this book, and I reccomend it to everyone!

As a 14-year old with Obsessive Complusive Diorder, this book reminded my that I'm not alone. It captures the emotions of O.C.D. and if you don't have the disorder, I still recommend it to help you understand. You may also like "Kissing Doorknobs"

"98.762 percent of my time is spent obsessing. About what? Everything"

Monica Devon is a normal fourteen-year-old kid on the outside. She spends time with her grandfather making word games, baby-sits, and helps her mother with the daycare, but on the inside, she is a confused perfectionist. When she gets birthday presents for her siblings, she decides that the beanbags are the wrong size. While attemptiong to fix them, she rips apart the seams and spoons styrofoam balls from one bag to the other. However, when the balls make a big mess, she is determined to really be a normal fourteen-year-old.

So she makes up Multiple Choice. At first it semms easy - choose the options, pick a letter from the scrabble tiles, and carry out the act. But when she sees that her obsession has gotten worse over the game, she tries to stop. However, the game keeps drawing her in. When things go too far, Monica is afraid that nothing can help her.

This is a great book for any young teenager. It shows ou the struggle that is going on in someone's head. It doesn't seem wrong to want everything to be perfect. But when it goes to this level of obsession, it becomes a serious problem. I loved how the author pictures the issues we see in real life today because a lot of people can relate to them. Other great books by Janet Tashjian are Tru Confessions and The Gospel According To Larry.

I read Multiple Choice because I saw that it was by the same author who wrote Tru Confessions, which is a fabulous children's book that accurately portrays what it's like to live with a special needs sibling. This book is good, while not up to the quality of Tru Confessions. I did relate a lot to Monica because I obsess about being perfect and I love word games, especially jumbling letters up to make anagrams. So I enjoyed that aspect of it. Other parts, I wasn't sure about. It never specified the illness Monica had (which I think is one of the book's problems, even though Darcy "doesn't like to put a label on things"), but I would guess she's borderline OCD, or maybe has an anxiety disorder. The Multiple Choice game was a nice touch, showing how hard it is for her to make decisions. She doesn't need to anymore - she becomes an automaton, obeying the Scrabble pieces. However, I have to penalize a full star from this excellent book because it stopped short of examining Monica's disorder at the end and decided to be sappy and surround her with concerned, caring adults and a new best friend. And believe me, that doesn't happen too often, so it took away from the story's realism. The dialogue between Monica and her parents when they find out about Multiple Choice was cliched. Other than that, this is a good read, especially for young teenage girls and wordsmiths.

A really inspirational story for anybody who has this compulsive disorder. It deals with real issues, and gave solutions to how you could deal with them. The characters were good, and it gave a brief description of each, and was written well. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Gosh- When I read about Monica's life it was strange. I loved the book, and that way that Tashjian writes it, she perfectly describes how monica is feeling, doing things in everyday life, and all of her thoughts. I loved how she just puts random things on pages such as:
I'm
the world
(I'm on top of the world!)
I thought that if anyone should read this book, that they should lend it to all of their friends, tell them about the book, and then they will be hooked.

As an adult I thought it was ok. I bought it as a gift for a teenager so until she reads it I can't really comment too much.

Monica seems like a superstar on the outside. She is smart and gets really good grades, has friends and seems to be perfectly normal. But inside she is in constant turmoil. For some reason she just doesn't seem to be able to let things go. She obsesses over everything, whether a word she missed in a spelling bee years earlier or the perfect comeback to an insult she was given weeks ago. She obsessed about her choices and the choices of others, wondering what the consequences will be for this or that course of action. She is in high school and feels as though she is a prisoner of her own obsession, unable to live a normal life because she spends so much time analyzing and over-analyzing every little thing that happens.

Then one day Monica picks up four Scrabble tiles--an A, a B, a C and a D. She decides that she will play a game with herself--in certain situations she will come up with four options and then choose one of the tiles at random to decide things for her. This, she feels, will give her some spontaneity. At first the game is exhilirating. It allows Monica to go to school in her pajamas one morning. She leads the school bus in song and talks back to a teacher. But then she does a couple of things she doesn't really want to do. These choices end up losing her a friendship and almost losing her a job. Monica feels like she's now trapped by the game, but can she go back to the way she was?

I liked the sensitivity with which Monica's obsession was treated, and I liked that the ending didn't deliver a quick fix to everything. There is rarely a quick fix to psychological problems such as these. I thought that some of Monica's choices were far too outlandish, though. Seeing the possible bad decisions she could make added tension to the story, but I don't think anyone really could have carried out some of her choices.

As a clinical psychologist for over 31 years, I could easily relate to Monica's suffering. Driven to desperation by her obsessive-compulsive disorder. she invents a game she calls "Multiple Choice" which she hopes will free her from her obsessive thinking and behavior, but the game itself becomes an obsession and only ends up complicating her life even more.

Multiple Choice, by Janet Tashjian, explores (with creativity for critical readers) the world of O.C.D's, a problem many of us are not concerned with, but Tashjian MAKES us understand. We see in depth of it when Monica (our heroine) is desperate to make 2 bean bags the same weight (because apparently the blue bean bag has a teeny bit more stuffing than the red).

Tashjian has dynamic anagrams, oxymorons, and word games. Monica is naturally talented in english, and in her head (!) creates wonderful word plays, juggling round letters in a word, to create another word. Her best friend, Lynn, tells her she's too obsessive, and Monica knows she's right. So, to compensate for her obsessive behaviour, she creates Multiple Choice. A game with four scrabble pieces (A, B, C, and D), in which when they're face down, Monica would then pick one randomly.
An example of one round of the game:
What to wear to school:
A) A normal choice, one that Monica might do anyway. (Jeans and a tee)

B) Something just plain dumb. (Pajamas)
C) Mean, completely out of character. (Junior bridesmaid gown)
D) Charitable, sacrificial choice. (Old black pants-- will donate new ones to Salvation Army)
As fate would have it--she chooses B.

You've got to read it, to see what happens. ^_^
Along the way, Monica chooses letters that hurt people, including herself. But she doesn't quit--like almost everything else in her life (98.762% in fact), Multiple Choice has become an OBSESSION. She is ruining herself but she just can't stop.

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